Ravnica: Is This The New D&D Setting? [UPDATED & CONFIRMED!]

If so... meh?

 

[Philip F Goding]

Yeah, I do like grim and gritty old school Greyhawk and want closure on all the stuff I heard about that never arrived, but I like exotic settings to visit. Give me that world with all the floating islands in the sky and airships top get between them or portals. Give me exotic minotaurs, centaurs, dryads and so on as playable characters. I have never liked Forgotten Realms much because it always seemed like a polished bright and shiny version of Greyhawk where they fixed up a lot of stuff that didn't need fixing. I much prefer something like Eberron and I like to visit these exotic settings from Greyhawk either through portals or with the methods in Spelljammer. I feel that in Sigil you have the capability of visiting other planes and perhaps settings as well, but they lock it all up and control it.

I don't know that they plan other M:tG as hardcover books ot just a series of Plane Shift articles. I suppose it depends on the popularity of a specific article. I think those are really just play test materials anyway. Perhaps at some point several of them will come out together as a book with the materials in a final form. All speculation of course, but the ideas I put out are along the lines of what I would do if I were working there. The ideas make sense to me both as what the public is likely looking for and how it would be profitable. That is a different thing from what I happen to want personally. Pretty much every idea anyone here has mentioned that they want I could say I want that too.

 

[Parmandur]

I honestly thought Dominaria was going to be the next D&D setting hard cover treatment, but then the planeshift article was released.

So I don't know which MtG setting will get the official hardcover treatment instead of a volunteer planeshift article next. Maybe Alara.

Well, we know there is a hard link between what worl gets a Magic Set (and fluffy Campaign Setting "Art Book" by Wyatt) and which get Planeshift treatmebt, whether in PDF or hardcover.

I reckon it's a matter of whether either of a given years Magic settings has big crunch potential. Dominara has three monsters, one and a half races and some background fluff tables. Ravnica is getting huuuge amounts of crunch. We'll see what the 2029 Magic sets bring, in time.

Heck, maybe they will do D&D world's in Magic next...

 

[Mercurius]

Well, we know there is a hard link between what worl gets a Magic Set (and fluffy Campaign Setting "Art Book" by Wyatt) and which get Planeshift treatmebt, whether in PDF or hardcover.

I reckon it's a matter of whether either of a given years Magic settings has big crunch potential. Dominara has three monsters, one and a half races and some background fluff tables. Ravnica is getting huuuge amounts of crunch. We'll see what the 2029 Magic sets bring, in time.

Heck, maybe they will do D&D world's in Magic next...

I am intrigued about these art books. I don't play magic but am a big fan of setting books. Do these art books actually have a strong written component and description of the worlds or are they mostly just art? Are there maps, histories, etc?

(I might go to B&N in a bit to check them out - my local one has Dominaria and Kaladesh in stock - so my question might be answered before you get to it).

 

[cbwjm]

I am intrigued about these art books. I don't play magic but am a big fan of setting books. Do these art books actually have a strong written component and description of the worlds or are they mostly just art? Are there maps, histories, etc?

(I might go to B&N in a bit to check them out - my local one has Dominaria and Kaladesh in stock - so my question might be answered before you get to it).

They do, I have the zendikar art book and they have a lot of the world lore to go along with the art. Even without the planeshift documents or prior knowledge from playing MtG you could easily put together a campaign just from the lore in the setting books.

 

[Mercurius]

They do, I have the zendikar art book and they have a lot of the world lore to go along with the art. Even without the planeshift documents or prior knowledge from playing MtG you could easily put together a campaign just from the lore in the setting books.

Thanks! As something of a setting book collector this is good news (although bad for my anemic trying-to-make-it-in-Hawaii-as-a-single-parent bank account ).

 

[Mercurius]

[MENTION=6914441]Philip F Goding[/MENTION], I enjoy your long posts filled with all sorts of quasi-Gygaxian arcana, but am a bit confused about what exactly you hope to see from WotC Greyhawk-wise. Can you spell it out simply? It sounds like you want something, yet at the same time (understandibly) don't want them to "modernize" Greyhawk with tropes from more recent editions (e.g. Dragonborn).

As an aside, I was working on a longish post in which I went through the major settings of D&D and offered what I'd like to see WotC and speculated on on what they actually might do. Not sure if I'll post it as it is one of those long ramblers that might receive questionable response, but I'll "mention" you if I do as I'd be curious as to what you thought about my Greyhawk suggestion.

 

[robus]

I am intrigued about these art books. I don't play magic but am a big fan of setting books. Do these art books actually have a strong written component and description of the worlds or are they mostly just art? Are there maps, histories, etc?

(I might go to B&N in a bit to check them out - my local one has Dominaria and Kaladesh in stock - so my question might be answered before you get to it).

Definitely check them out in person. I have Zendikar, Innistrad & Kaladesh books, and i found the first two quite inspiring.

Kaladesh was a disappointment, despite the fantastic art, for two reasons: 1) the book focused mainly on the major city and 2) there seemed to be very little opportunity for adventure. Sure there were some minor disputes mentioned but nothing to really sink your teeth into.

I’m not sure if it was my feedback to Wyatt a whie back that started this ( ), but i’m most gratified that they’ve started producing maps for the planes. The earlier artbooks suffer for not having an over-arching map to tie things together IMHO.

 

[Parmandur]

I am intrigued about these art books. I don't play magic but am a big fan of setting books. Do these art books actually have a strong written component and description of the worlds or are they mostly just art? Are there maps, histories, etc?

(I might go to B&N in a bit to check them out - my local one has Dominaria and Kaladesh in stock - so my question might be answered before you get to it).

They are very verbose, filled with detailed fluff. The Planeshift articles only make sense when viewed through the prism of being crunch addendums to full campaign setting guides. Wyatt has said that his mandate was to produce full RPG style campaign guides that are rules agnostic: you could pick up the Dominara book and use it for 3E, Savage World's or GURPS if you feel like, and aside from the rules is full featured.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think the main thing that differentiates Greyhawk from FR is it's tone: grimmer, grittier, grounded.

In that respect, 5e isn't a ideal fit - it's hard to die, and unlimited cantrips make magic a common sight.

 

[Mercurius]

Definitely check them out in person. I have Zendikar, Innistrad & Kaladesh books, and i found the first two quite inspiring.

Kaladesh was a disappointment, despite the fantastic art, for two reasons: 1) the book focused mainly on the major city and 2) there seemed to be very little opportunity for adventure. Sure there were some minor disputes mentioned but nothing to really sink your teeth into.

I’m not sure if it was my feedback to Wyatt a whie back that started this ( ), but i’m most gratified that they’ve started producing maps for the planes. The earlier artbooks suffer for not having an over-arching map to tie things together IMHO.

Funny you should say that. I just browsed Dominaria and Kaladesh at B&N and ended up ordering Dominaria on Amazon but didn’t like Kaladesh for exactly the reasons you state, especially the lack of a map compared to the beautiful one in the Dominaria book.

Which other Art books have world maps? I’m particularly drawn to Zendikar and Amonkhet, not as much the other ones.